"Just lucky, I guess," she said in jest as she looked ahead at the line at the Bethlehem Post Office on Wood Street. "What else am I going to do? I can't let them go to waste."

An estimated 10 million 2-cent stamps -- of the 4 billion printed nationwide -- will be sold this week and next in the Lehigh Valley alone, said Tammy Thomas, the post office's supervisor of customer services for the Bethlehem area.

For people who miscalculated their Christmas card stamp purchase, a letter postmarked by today will be accepted with the 37-cent stamp. Sunday will serve as an unwritten grace period; letters dropped off that day will be mailed, said Ed Feichtel, a manager at the Lehigh Valley Post Office in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

However, come Monday, anything without the new postage rate will be returned to the sender.

That's a fate people are willing to wait in long lines to prevent.

"We all forgot," Darlene Miller of Bethlehem said from the back of the 16-person line. "Guess that means we're not the smartest people in the world."

At the Easton Post Office on Ferry Street, Adam Reed of Bethlehem Township was getting frustrated as the automatic stamp machine kept spitting back the money he was putting in to get 37-cent stamps.

When told the price was increasing to 39 cents, he said, "I'm shocked. I had no idea, and I read the papers every day."

The rate increase is part of a 5 percent across-the-board increase designed to help the U.S. Postal Service build a $3.1 billion escrow account.

It's the first increase since 2002, when stamps went from 34 to 37 cents.

People who prefer to avoid the wait can get stamps online at www.USPS.com, by calling 1-800-stamp24, by mail from their post office or in vending machines at post offices and many grocery stores. Businesses can even get them by fax.

The newest 2-cent stamp features a picture of a Navajo silver and turquoise necklace with polished blue turquoise nuggets, according to the Postal Service Web site.

So the fashion-obsessed mailer can take an old Lady Liberty 37-cent stamp and use the new one to accessorize.

Of course, people were probably not thinking that as they waited in line Friday, when what is usually a post-holiday lull continued the seasonal frenzy. Most post offices in the Valley brought in extra workers to handle the long lines.

"That's just one more candy bar I won't eat," said Willard Kincaid, holding 20 2-cent stamps. "If you want to mail your bills, what else are you going to do?"

Postal officials said the frenzy will probably die down by the end of next week, but the stamps will be around a lot longer.

Apparently, it takes some customers a while to get the math right.

"Some people buy too many 2-cent stamps to go along with their 37-cent stamps," said Joe Bonavita, manger of the Bethlehem Post Office. "Then they have to come back later to buy more 37-cent stamps to go along with their extra 2-centers. We'll be selling these for months."